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Housing Market Update Q1 2013

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Lotus Real Estate Services CalBRE 01725627

The housing market continues to show progress and solid improvement according to housing statistics for the first quarter of 2013 reported by the Fedreral Housing Finance Agency ( FHFA ) that oversees Freddie MAC and Fannie MAE.   The FHFA tracks appreciation of home prices financed with conventional loans across the US, and publishes quarterly reports.

Housing Appreciation Map by State Q1 2013

A very helpful graphic they publish are a map of year over year appreciation of house prices by state. The colors indicate appreciation ranges varying from a low, in Red, of - 0.7% - 2.3%  to a high in Blue of 9.8% to 22%.  

This is a big change over the same chart two years ago where the high appreciation range was 0 to 2.7% and only three states had that rate:  North Dakota, Alaska and West Virginia.

This is a very helpful chart for people considering relocating across states.  For example if you are thinking of moving from California to Texas, your home in California appreciated at 16.2 % vs a 6.2 percent appreciation in Texas.  So you may be able to get more home for the money, or save some of your equity.

 

Another great chart provided by the FHFA is a graph showing the housing price index over time.   This graph shows the overall housing price appreciation index vs time for housing in the US. 

House Price Index TrendThere are several bits of good news shown in this graph.

The first is that in aggregate across the US the price index has moved up to the level it was in November of 2004.   That means that your equity is increasing over where it was at the low point in mid 2012.

The other encouraging information in this chart is the slope of the index is getting close to the historical slope of the index.  That is yet another indicator that the housing market is continuing to get healthier. 

Our local market in the greater Sacramento arae of California continues to show very high appreciation rates.   The median house price for Sacramento County has increased  31% year over year to $220K  and the median house price for Placer County has increased  25.9% to $350K.

Please feel free to share this housing price update with friends and family, we hope you find it helpful.  And of course please visit our websites to learn more about houses in your neighborhood.    If you'd like a quick and free estimate of your home's value, go to our home price page and get a free report emailed to you within minutes.

Again, we hope you enjoy this housing market update.

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